VATICAN CITY, 9 FEB 2008 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Benedict XVI received participants in an international congress on the theme: "Woman and man, the 'humanum' in its entirety". The event was organised by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, for the twentieth anniversary of John Paul II's Apostolic Letter on the dignity and vocation of women "Mulieris dignitatem".
"The relationship between man and woman in their respective specificity, reciprocity and complementarity is without doubt a central aspect of the 'anthropological question' which is so decisive to contemporary culture", said the Pope, going on to mention the many documents the Church has dedicated to this theme, from "Mulieris dignitatem" to John Paul II's 1995 "Letter to Women", as well as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in The Church and in the World".
"The fundamental anthropological truths of man and woman, their equality of dignity and their unity, the deep-rooted and profound diversity between male and female and their vocation to reciprocity and complementarity, to collaboration and communion", said the Pope, "are based on the foundation of the dignity of each person created in the image and likeness of God, Who 'created them male and female' avoiding indistinct uniformity and flat and impoverished equality, as well as massive and confrontational difference".
"Hence, when man or woman seek to become autonomous and completely self-sufficient, they risk being trapped in a form of self-realisation that considers the overcoming of all natural, social and religious barriers as the conquest of freedom, when in fact it reduces them to a state of oppressive solitude".
The Holy Father highlighted the need for "fresh anthropological research which, on the basis of the great Christian tradition, brings together the latest scientific progress and modern cultural sensibilities, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of .. female identity", as well as of "male identity which is also not infrequently the subject of partial and ideological studies".
Benedict XVI also recalled how at the opening of last year's Fifth General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean he had mentioned "the persistence of a male chauvinist mentality, ignorant of the 'newness' of Christianity which recognises and proclaims the equal dignity and responsibility of women and men.
"There are places and cultures", the Pope added, "in which women are discriminated against and undervalued for the mere fact of being women, where even religious arguments and family, social and cultural pressures are brought to bear to uphold the inequality between the sexes, and where women are subject to acts of violence, ... and exploited for the purposes of publicity".
"In the face of such serious and persistent phenomena, there is an ever more urgent need for the commitment of Christians to become promoters of a culture that grants women, in law and in everyday life, the dignity that is theirs by right".
The Pope continued: "God gave man and woman ... a specific vocation and mission in the Church and in the world". In this context he also mentioned the family, describing it as "a community of love open to life, the fundamental cell of society" in which man and woman "together play an indispensable role in life.
"From their conception, children have the right to a father and mother to take care of them and accompany them as they grow. For its part, the State must support with adequate social policies everything that promotes the stability and unity of marriage, the dignity and responsibility of the spouses and their right ... to be educators of their children".
Benedict XVI concluded by invoking the intercession of Our Lady "to help the women of our time to accomplish their vocation and their mission in the ecclesial and civil communities".
AC/WOMEN/CON-L VIS 20080212 (650)
"The relationship between man and woman in their respective specificity, reciprocity and complementarity is without doubt a central aspect of the 'anthropological question' which is so decisive to contemporary culture", said the Pope, going on to mention the many documents the Church has dedicated to this theme, from "Mulieris dignitatem" to John Paul II's 1995 "Letter to Women", as well as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in The Church and in the World".
"The fundamental anthropological truths of man and woman, their equality of dignity and their unity, the deep-rooted and profound diversity between male and female and their vocation to reciprocity and complementarity, to collaboration and communion", said the Pope, "are based on the foundation of the dignity of each person created in the image and likeness of God, Who 'created them male and female' avoiding indistinct uniformity and flat and impoverished equality, as well as massive and confrontational difference".
"Hence, when man or woman seek to become autonomous and completely self-sufficient, they risk being trapped in a form of self-realisation that considers the overcoming of all natural, social and religious barriers as the conquest of freedom, when in fact it reduces them to a state of oppressive solitude".
The Holy Father highlighted the need for "fresh anthropological research which, on the basis of the great Christian tradition, brings together the latest scientific progress and modern cultural sensibilities, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of .. female identity", as well as of "male identity which is also not infrequently the subject of partial and ideological studies".
Benedict XVI also recalled how at the opening of last year's Fifth General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean he had mentioned "the persistence of a male chauvinist mentality, ignorant of the 'newness' of Christianity which recognises and proclaims the equal dignity and responsibility of women and men.
"There are places and cultures", the Pope added, "in which women are discriminated against and undervalued for the mere fact of being women, where even religious arguments and family, social and cultural pressures are brought to bear to uphold the inequality between the sexes, and where women are subject to acts of violence, ... and exploited for the purposes of publicity".
"In the face of such serious and persistent phenomena, there is an ever more urgent need for the commitment of Christians to become promoters of a culture that grants women, in law and in everyday life, the dignity that is theirs by right".
The Pope continued: "God gave man and woman ... a specific vocation and mission in the Church and in the world". In this context he also mentioned the family, describing it as "a community of love open to life, the fundamental cell of society" in which man and woman "together play an indispensable role in life.
"From their conception, children have the right to a father and mother to take care of them and accompany them as they grow. For its part, the State must support with adequate social policies everything that promotes the stability and unity of marriage, the dignity and responsibility of the spouses and their right ... to be educators of their children".
Benedict XVI concluded by invoking the intercession of Our Lady "to help the women of our time to accomplish their vocation and their mission in the ecclesial and civil communities".
AC/WOMEN/CON-L VIS 20080212 (650)
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